People mingle during a small party at the home of Bob Short in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short began construction on his home bar in the '70s and has constantly added to it over the years. The walls are decorated with neon signs, flags, framed photographs and old license plates.

Photo: Alex Washburn

People mingle during a small party at the home of Bob Short in San...

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Alicia Short carries snacks down to the basement bar built by her father Bob Short. He began in the 1970s and has filled it with collectibles over the years.

Photo: Alex Washburn

Alicia Short carries snacks down to the basement bar built by her...

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Terry McHugh laughs with his wife Mary at the home of Bob Short in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short began construction on his home bar in the '70s and has constantly added to it over the decades.

Photo: Alex Washburn

Terry McHugh laughs with his wife Mary at the home of Bob Short in...

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Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong talks with Bob Short in the bar space of Short's home in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short began construction on his home bar in the '70s and has constantly refined it over the years.

Photo: Alex Washburn

Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong talks with Bob Short in the bar space of...

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Alicia Short offers Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong some pixy stix during a party at the home of Bob Short in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short (her father) began construction on his home bar in the '70s and it contains a three thousand beer bottle collection, jukebox, barber chair and too many pieces of beer paraphernalia to count.

Photo: Alex Washburn

Alicia Short offers Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong some pixy stix during a...

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A group of people chat during a party at the home of Bob Short in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short began construction on his home bar in the '70s and has constantly refined it over the years adding a jukebox, neon signs and framed posters.

Photo: Alex Washburn

A group of people chat during a party at the home of Bob Short in...

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Cindy Short talks to her father Bob at his home in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short began construction on his home bar in the '70s and has constantly added posters, signs, photographs and beer paraphernalia over the years.

Photo: Alex Washburn

Cindy Short talks to her father Bob at his home in San Francisco...

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A faux security camera perches in the corner of the bathroom at the home of Bob Short in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. The camera points directly at the toilet in the bathroom of the bar Short began building insides his home in the '70s.

Photo: Alex Washburn

A faux security camera perches in the corner of the bathroom at the...

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Luis Cueller watches guests mingle during a party at the home of Bob Short in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short began construction on his home bar in the '70s and has since added a working 1950s jukebox, a barber chair, street signs, neon and a collection of three thousand beer bottles.

Photo: Alex Washburn

Luis Cueller watches guests mingle during a party at the home of...

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Bob Short uses a skateboard to scoot under the bar he has built inside his home in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short began construction on his home bar in the '70s and has constantly added to it over the years.

Photo: Alex Washburn

Bob Short uses a skateboard to scoot under the bar he has built...

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A huge number of items decorate the ceiling of the bar Bob Short has built into his home in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short began construction on his home bar in the '70s and has constantly added to it over the years.

Photo: Alex Washburn

A huge number of items decorate the ceiling of the bar Bob Short...

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Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong offers his girlfriend Adrienne Radakovic a snack at the home of Bob Short in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short began construction on his home bar in the '70s and has constantly refined it over the years. It was Hirakawa-Wong and Radakovic's first time to the house but they were both impressed with the atmosphere.

Photo: Alex Washburn

Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong offers his girlfriend Adrienne Radakovic a...

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A small sampling of Bob Short's collection of three thousand beer bottles decorates the wall behind his bar's counter at his home in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short began construction on his home bar in the '70s and has constantly added to it over the years.

Photo: Alex Washburn

A small sampling of Bob Short's collection of three thousand beer...

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Alicia Short writes on a chalkboard in the bar bathroom of her childhood home in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Her father Bob Short began work on a bar party space in the home back in the '70s and Alicia grew up watching it change and grow as he collected bottles, flags, license plates, mirrors, toys and knickknacks to fill the space.

Photo: Alex Washburn

Alicia Short writes on a chalkboard in the bar bathroom of her...

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Neon glows across the patio of Bob Short's home in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short began construction on his home bar in the '70s and has constantly refined it over the years. It is full of knickknacks he has collected over the years including his three thousand beer bottle collection.

Photo: Alex Washburn

Neon glows across the patio of Bob Short's home in San Francisco...

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Neon glows across the patio of Bob Short's home in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short began construction on his home bar in the '70s and has constantly refined it over the years. It is full of knickknacks he has collected over the years including his three thousand beer bottle collection.

Photo: Alex Washburn

Neon glows across the patio of Bob Short's home in San Francisco...

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Eileen McHugh hugs Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong goodbye as she leaves the home of Bob Short in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short began construction on his home bar in the '70s and has constantly refined it over the years.

Photo: Alex Washburn

Eileen McHugh hugs Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong goodbye as she leaves the...

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Kickknacks decorate the bathroom of Bob Short's bar at his home in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short began construction on his home bar in the '70s and has constantly refined it over the years.

Photo: Alex Washburn

Kickknacks decorate the bathroom of Bob Short's bar at his home in...

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Bob Short chats with Rhiannon Cadelinia at his home in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short began construction on his home bar in the '70s and has constantly refined it over the years. In addition to neon signs his decorations include a 1950s jukebox, street signs, framed posters and a three thousand beer bottle collection.

Photo: Alex Washburn

Bob Short chats with Rhiannon Cadelinia at his home in San...

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A small sampling of Bob Short's collection of three thousand beer bottles decorates the wall behind his bar's counter at his home in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short began construction on his home bar in the '70s and has constantly added to it over the years.

Photo: Alex Washburn

A small sampling of Bob Short's collection of three thousand beer...

Image 21 of 24

Heather Klingelsmith walks past a 1950s jukebox and barber chair at the home of Bob Short in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short began construction on his home bar in the '70s and has constantly refined it over the years. The bar's decorations include his three thousand beer bottle collection, neon signs, street signs and framed posters and photographs.

Patrick Largo checks out the 1950s jukebox at the home of Bob Short in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short began construction on his home bar in the '70s and has constantly refined it over the years adding a barber chair, neon signs and countless knickknacks.

Photo: Alex Washburn

Patrick Largo checks out the 1950s jukebox at the home of Bob Short...

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A huge number of items decorate the ceiling of the bar Bob Short has built into his home including his portrait as photographed in San Francisco Calif. on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Short began construction on his home bar in the '70s and has constantly refined it over the years.

Since 1979, the union carpenter has been slowly transforming his San Francisco basement into the ultimate home bar, hand milling the walnut countertop, lining 3,000 beer bottles along the walls, stocking the jukebox with classic 45s and installing a model train to run the length of the ceiling.

It's so dude-tastic that when one of Short's three daughters brought a date home three years ago, the young man took one long 360 and fell in love, on the spot.

"I turned to her and said, 'This is where you grew up?'" said John Tostanoski. "I mean, come on, it's got a freakin' train!" he said, pointing at the locomotive overhead.

A romance - and a bromance - was born.

Short's bar is a weekly gathering place for his daughters and their friends, and he regularly has neighbors over. At a recent party, Short cranked up Johnny Cash on the 1950s Seeburg jukebox, stacked pennies on top of the gumball machine, turned on all the neon beer signs and the barber pole, then spent the evening laughing with the crowd of Teamsters, sheet metal workers and nurses as his daughters passed out canned Budweiser, Chex Mix and powdered candy Pixy Stix.

When he needed to get behind the bar, Short knelt one knee on a skateboard and pushed with his other foot to roll through the opening under the countertop.

"Easier than trying to bend down," he said.

Place for parties

Bob doesn't like to tend bar, preferring to mingle and show guests trinkets in his extensive collection. He built the bar not to escape, but so that he and his wife could entertain friends, his daughters could have birthday parties, and he could keep his craftsman's mind and hands busy. This summer he threw a birthday party for his 96-year-old father in the bar.

Bob built the bar top out of a solid piece of walnut, and carved the bathroom door to look like an outhouse with a curved moon. He pulled apart a deck at his Calaveras County cabin to line one wall of the bar with rustic planks. One corner houses a player-piano.

He scours flea markets and garage sales for rusted farm tools, wind-up toys, license plates, bar mirrors and street signs. And because he loves a good prank, he put up a faux video camera facing the toilet, and strung up rubber bats and spiders that he can drop from the bar ceiling onto the heads of unsuspecting visitors using controls he rigged up behind the bar.

His watering hole even has a "confessional," a small closet where he keeps the hard liquors and a few bawdy jokes thumb-tacked to the walls.

"I wanted to do this because it's fun," he said, sitting in the red barber chair, beneath a mounted set of longhorns.

"Plus, bars are expensive."

When his daughters were small, they used to delight in being held aloft so they could see themselves in the ceiling, which is covered in bar mirrors. When the girls got older, their father assigned them songs on the jukebox, which he'd play to let them know he was thinking of them.

"Mine is 'Little Deuce Coupe,' " said Anita Short. "When he plays it, I know he wants me to come down and hang out."

Raising the house

Bob Short is so attached to the bar that he recently paid to have the whole house raised 3 feet to protect the bar from routine winter flooding.

The whole family moved out to live with relatives for more than a year while repairs were done. The entire bar had to go into storage.

Now that Short is retired, and he's filled every possible inch of wall-space in his bar, he has turned to making frames, mirrors, wine racks and chalkboards from reclaimed wood. He sells them at the Hard Wear Store, a San Francisco clothing supply shop catering to workers in the industrial trades. He keeps his artist portfolio in a binder next to a 1920s-era slot machine in the bar.

"This place is mind-blowing!" said first-timer Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong, who was invited by a friend of a friend-of-the-family.

"I can't believe my roommate kept this place a secret for years - it's better than most bars. You can spend all evening just looking at his collection," he said.

Hundreds of bottle openers dangle over the bar. There are license plates from every state decorating the walls. (Bob's favorite: RH GRMA - red hot grandma)

No need to go to bars

Short has a framed jersey signed by every member of the 2010 World Series champion San Francisco Giants. Thousands of business cards left by visitors are tacked to the bar's walls. There's even a real San Francisco cable car bell mounted near the bar.

"When we grew up, we thought everyone had this at home," Anita said. "Now, we appreciate it. We will occasionally go to bars, but really, there's no need."

For Bob Short, whose woodshop is accessible through a hallway behind his bar, there's no need to ever leave home. Because at the Short abode, the party might pause, but ultimately, it never fizzles out.